The time taken for passengers to board an aircraft is a problem for all parties involved; passengers, airports and airlines. With the growth in the number of flights and passengers worldwide the problem is of increasing significance, compounded by the increase in size of aircraft, which can now carry more than 800 passengers.
Apart from inconvenience there is a very real economic cost. Given the very large investment in aircraft and airports, any delay is costly. Of particular concern is the “turn-around time” which must be minimised to enable aircraft to maintain their schedules, and avoid missing their “take-off slots”. As well as delaying the particular flight, this can cause delays for all subsequent flights of the aircraft, possibly several per day, compounding the costs and inconvenience.
Much effort has been made by airlines to streamline boarding in order to get passengers into the aircraft expediently by minimising congestion. Various procedures have been adopted by some airlines but they are all considered to be far from perfect.
A number of studies have been carried out on behalf of airlines by universities and others to analyse existing boarding procedures with a view to developing improved and/or new methods. Some of these are referred to below.
“Optimal Boarding Method for Airline Passengers”, Steffen, Jason H., Physorg.com, February 2008, describes a computer simulation of boarding methods which shows that the author's proposed boarding method, in which rows of passengers sitting together are boarded in alternating sequences, is more efficient. This is quite plausible but it undesirably requires a high degree of airline staff input to manage the procedure and willingness of passengers to co-operate with regimentation.
“Robustness of Efficient Passenger Boarding in Airplanes”, Ferarri & Nagel, ETH Zurich, Switzerland, November 2004, describes the results of computer simulations comparing different boarding systems, and indicates that the “back to front” boarding method favoured by many airlines is not the best, and paradoxically, it works better when passengers do not follow the assigned group.
“America West Airlines Develops Efficient Boarding Strategies”, Menkes van den Briel et al, Arizona State University, United States of America, May 2005, describes a research project commissioned by an airline, comprising computer analysis of various boarding systems and video observations of passengers at a major airport. This document proposes the “reverse pyramid” method of boarding, where passengers are called in certain sequential groups as the best way of minimising congestion, but unfortunately does not suggest any means of achieving this.
“The Role of Computer Simulation in Reducing Airplane Turn Time”, Marelli et al, Boeing Commercial Aircraft Group, discloses with the aid of bar charts that more efficient boarding can make a significant difference to aircraft turn-around times. This document also describes a method of computer analysis validated by observation of passenger behaviour, but unfortunately does not propose how more efficient boarding can be achieved
“Analysis of Airplane Boarding Times”, Bachmat et al, Ben-Gurion University, Israel, describes a highly mathematical method of modelling and analysing the process of passengers boarding an airplane, but makes no recommendations about any procedure.
US Patent Application No. 2007/0265890 A1, entitled “Interactive Electronic Boarding Display”, describes a visual display which is updated as passengers proceed to board aircraft. This is useful information for waiting passengers but it does not amount to a boarding system to clearly improve the efficiency of aircraft turn-around times.
It would thus be desirable to improve the efficiency of boarding passengers on an aircraft. It would also be desirable to at least partially address some of the shortcomings of existing and proposed methods, strategies and devices identified above.